The document discusses the difference between mind and brain. While the brain plays an important role, the mind cannot be confined to just what is inside our skull. After discussions between scientists across fields, the mind was defined as "the emergent self-organizing process, both embodied and relational, that regulates energy and information flow within and among us." This definition emphasizes that the mind is both an inner and inter process, influenced by social and external factors, not just the physical brain. A healthy mind requires optimal self-organization and integration of differentiated ideas.

1. MIND vs BRAIN
By S.Jerslin

2. Mind Vs Brain
• You might wonder, at some point today,
what’s going on in another person’s mind. You
may compliment someone’s great mind, or say
they are out of their mind. You may even try
to expand or free your own mind.

3. But what is a mind?
• Defining the concept is a surprisingly slippery task. The
mind is the seat of consciousness, the essence of your
being. Without a mind, you cannot be considered
meaningfully alive. So what exactly, and where
precisely, is it?
• Traditionally, scientists have tried to define the mind as
the product of brain activity: The brain is the physical
substance, and the mind is the conscious product of
those firing neurons, according to the classic argument.
But growing evidence shows that the mind goes far
beyond the physical workings of your brain.

4. Cont….
• No doubt, the brain plays an incredibly
important role. But our mind cannot be
confined to what’s inside our skull, or even
our body, according to a definition first put
forward by Dan Siegel, a professor of
psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine and the
author of a recently published book, Mind: A
Journey to the Heart of Being Human

5. Cont…
• He first came up with the definition more than
two decades ago, at a meeting of 40 scientists
across disciplines, including neuroscientists,
physicists, sociologists, and anthropologists.
The aim was to come to an understanding of
the mind that would appeal to common
ground and satisfy those wrestling with the
question across these fields.

6. Cont…
• After much discussion, they decided that a key
component of the mind is: “the emergent self-
organizing process, both embodied and
relational, that regulates energy and
information flow within and among us.” It’s
not catchy. But it is interesting, and with
meaningful implications.

7. Both Brain and Mind
• I realized if someone asked me to define the
shoreline but insisted, is it the water or the sand,
I would have to say the shore is both sand and
sea,” says Siegel. “You can’t limit our
understanding of the coastline to insist it’s one or
the other. I started thinking, maybe the mind is
like the coastline—some inner and inter
process. Mental life for an anthropologist or
sociologist is profoundly social. Your thoughts,
feelings, memories, attention, what you
experience in this subjective world is part of
mind.”

8. Mathematics
• The definition has since been supported by
research across the sciences, but much of the
original idea came from mathematics. Siegel
realized the mind meets the mathematical
definition of a complex system in that it’s
open (can influence things outside itself),
chaos capable (which simply means it’s
roughly randomly distributed), and non-linear
(which means a small input leads to large and
difficult to predict result).

9. Complex, differentiate, Integrate
• In math, complex systems are self-organizing,
and Siegel believes this idea is the foundation
to mental health. Again borrowing from the
mathematics, optimal self-organization is:
flexible, adaptive, coherent, energized, and
stable. This means that without optimal self-
organization, you arrive at either chaos or
rigidity—a notion that, Siegel says, fits
the range of symptoms of mental health
disorders.

10. Cont…
• Finally, self-organization demands linking
together differentiated ideas or, essentially,
integration. And Siegel says integration—
whether that’s within the brain or within
society—is the foundation of a healthy mind.

11. Not Product but Relation
• In other words, even perceiving our mind as
simply a product of our brain, rather than
relations, can make us feel more isolated. And
to appreciate the benefits of interrelations,
you simply have to open your mind.